The Jameson Experience

Jameson was born and raised in Dublin, but eventually we outgrew our city home. In 1975, we moved our entire whiskey making operation to the green surroundings of Midleton, Co Cork. The fresh air has been good to us, but we can’t claim to be starting completely anew. The original buildings at the Midleton Distillery date back as far as the 1800s, and were used to mature Cork Distillery Whiskey (now known as Paddy Whiskey). Visitors come face to face with original kilns and pot stills from that time and explore warehouses that have matured whiskey for more than 2 centuries.

On the last day of 2015, we went to Irish whiskey museum. Surprisingly, it was sunny day here in Ireland. You can get to Midleton from Cork on the 261 or 260 bus that costs 8 euro each way, the bus takes about 30 minutes and runs every half hour. The station where the bus left you is not too far to distillery, maybe 5 minutes no longer.

On the entrance you will see an old stone building. There’s a bar in the lobby while you wait until your tour start, as well as the gift shop in which we are already done shopping before the tour started :p

The whiskey is no longer actually made here it is instead just a museum of where the whiskey was originally made, there has been no Jameson whiskey made here for nearly forty-five years.

The tour has started with a 10-minute video and then they take you through the older buildings that had been used for production. Step by step, we learned more about each process of whiskey making; malting, milling, mashing, distillation, maturation, and packaging. Lovely staff, very knowledgeable, guide will lead you into different rooms where equipment or videos are shown. Her voice was very relaxing and she was interacting all the time with our group and if you don’t know how whiskey is made, the informational tour is going to be worth your while. In our tour the guide answered any and all questions that were asked to her.

Irish whiskey is tripled distilled, in mostly used sherry barrels imported from the U.S. and Spain, it’s that aging in the burnt sherry barrels that gives Jameson it’s unique taste. And, unlike their Scottish cousins, they don’t use peat to fire their kiln for the barley. When Jameson whiskey is producing they used anthracite coal to fire the closed kiln for a cleaner taste but today it’s all high tech and natural gas.

At the end of the tour you get to walk through a room where they are aging whiskey and the smell of ” The Angles Share” is something really special, in this room is strictly forbidden to use the camera.

The tour ended in the tasting room with an included tasting session of three different types of whiskeys. For every person was a table set with 3 shots of whiskey from a Scottish whiskey, left, from a Jameson whiskey, middle, and an American whiskey, right. We take a sip of water and try the Jameson first so that we could compare with the 2 others. The water really helps clean the pallet between each sip of a different whiskey!

At the end, you are also given the choice between a glass of Jameson straight up or a mixed drink, ginger ale and Jameson cocktail. I took the second one and it was really refreshing!

Could also print off a certificate for yourself at the end.

I learned a lot about whiskey in this museum and had a good time learning about history of whiskey production in Ireland, how it differs from whisky, how to do a tasting and what to look for. Ireland’s history is reflected in its whiskey industry, and this museum did a very good job of presenting the evolution, I highly recommended this place for those who’d like to learn more about Irish history, culture and Irish whisky.

“A man who stole my whiskey used the defense that no one could resist a bottle of Jameson. I had no choice but to testify on his behalf.”

About me

I’m Croatian native. I was born and raised in Karlovac. Deeply passionate about Yoga. Black Gold - Coffee. And just a little obsessed with photography. And food. Because, it revives me.

I studied for my degree in Rijeka after which I lived in Zagreb and Cork. After living in different countries and having traveled many destinations in the world, I’ve finally decided to create this blog.

I hope my stories get you talking and thinking and I hope it will inspire you, just as it inspires me. Thanks for visiting my page and don't hesitate to drop me a line, I want to hear it! or if you just have some travel tips for me!

always explore the world with new eyes, dream of places you've never imagined, and discover a love so perfect it was almost never meant to be. r.m. drake

ABOUT CAMESAWLOVED

Camesawloved is about coffee and travel.

I try to tell it like it is, I'm no expert on anything. This is just my way around the world, which I want share with you that maybe will trigger something in you. All the images you see in posts on the blog are my own. First stories were written from my room on Emerald Isle and I can say it's a reason I’ve started this big story.

I hope to introduce you to new places, inspire you to go out and explore the World with the best to see, do, and eat.

CameSawLoved is for people like me and you, that love to travel and want to discover more of it while on the road, with tips for planning or just dreaming about. So, just, don't stop to wander every damn day. And eat delicious. It's important to maintain balance and mental clarity.